Editorial: Jaipur must not derail Indo-Pak peace process
Seven bombs went off in the crowded city of Jaipur on Tuesday, killing 80 and injuring 150 people. This is a tragic incident. It is also an event that could give space to hardliners within India to point fingers towards Pakistan. While New Delhi has refrained from a knee-jerk reaction, a positive fallout of the 4-year-old normalisation process, Indias junior home minister, Mr Shriprakash Jaiswal, did say that The people responsible for these attacks have foreign connections. In the coming days this refrain could become more persistent, and there would be pressure on the government in Delhi to name Pakistan as the state that has sponsored jihadi terrorists in the past and hasnt got rid of them even now. The blasts occurred on the 10th anniversary of the May 13 nuclear tests that India conducted in Rajasthan where Jaipur is located.
This would be wrong. But for many Indians it makes a convincing case, even though there is a history of Indias experience with militancy and terrorism radiating from the north (Kashmir) and south (Tamilnadu). The biggest incidents that stand out in the collective Indian memory are the 1993 series of blasts in Mumbai which were connected with an Indian underworld don named Daud Ibrahim who ended up being located in Pakistan after the bombings; and the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament allegedly carried out by a jihadi organisation operating out of Pakistan. After the 2001 attack, Pakistan and India mobilised their armies and there was border tension for nearly a year, triggering fears at the international level that a border clash could quickly escalate into a nuclear exchange.
Unfortunately, much of what happened between India and Pakistan unfolded within a conflictual paradigm with both states trying to outflank each other. Also, while the states may have changed tack on how they must deal with each other, their rivalry has already succeeded in unleashing forces that now threaten to derail the normalisation process. Many hardline Indian analysts still believe that Pakistani jihadi militias with bases in Kashmir have their cells all over India. Others, however, point out that the cells cannot operate without linking up with local Muslim groups like the home-grown Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) which is a part reaction to what is perceived as discrimination against the Muslims in that country. The blasts that occurred in India since 2005 have been linked to SIMI and most Indian commentators think the movement aims at creating communal unrest, pointing to a series of bomb blasts and attacks in Delhi, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Bangalore and Mumbai beginning October 2005.
The danger of escalation of bad blood between India and Pakistan at this critical juncture is real and has recent antecedents when Pakistan linked India to the insurrection in Balochistan and Pakistans top leadership went public on the discovery of Indian funds in rebel camps. India didnt help by issuing statements on Balochistan intended to be a tit-for-tat exercise revenging interference in Kashmir. This position was articulated by no less than Pakistans ex-army chief General (Retd) Aslam Beg who wrote in The Nation on 9 March 2008: Against Pakistan, Sarobi (in Afghanistan) is the nerve centre, headed by an Indian general officer, who also commands the Border Road Organisation (BRO)...The Sarobi network targets the province of NWFP, Pakistan. Dissidents from Pakistan are trained at Sarobi for missions inside NWFP. The dissidents from Balochistan are trained at Lashkargah, for undertaking missions in Balochistan as well as in support of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
The fact is that Pakistan is now as vulnerable to terrorist strikes as India has been or remains. This is borne out by the increasing number of terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets inside Pakistan. The menace has therefore come to haunt the region. Assessments are being constantly made about the joining up of the sections of the underprivileged Indian Muslims with the global terrorist organisation, Al Qaeda, which is already operating in Pakistan with a lot of emotional support from sections of the population that are opposed to the United States. However, given the nature of domestic Indian politics and collective memory, there is greater likelihood of Pakistan coming under suspicion. The UPA alliance that Congress party heads in India is already under pressure from economic worries and has become vulnerable to charges of incompetence from the opposition led by the BJP. Under the circumstances, Pakistan could be the timely bogeyman to divert attention.
Pakistan and India have moved closer as never before to signing the final papers on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline which is expected to take both countries out of their energy crisis. An agreement on Siachin and Sir Creek is nearing. Trade and travel prospects are looking good. But this is precisely the juncture at which it is greatly tempting for terrorist groups opposed to Pakistan-India normalisation to strike. If the bilateral equation goes sour, these projects already late by decades could go on to the back-burner once again. It is therefore good that Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani has swiftly condemned the Jaipur blasts and the Indian foreign secretary Shivshanker Menon has refused to blame Pakistan before his forthcoming visit to Islamabad. But both countries need to do more to forestall any lethal fallout. That would only play into the hands of the terrorists. *
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
